An Introduction to Opera

Our younger elementary students had what for most of them was their first taste of opera recently. Andy Truett, a tenor with the San Francisco Opera, gave lively interactive presentations about three favorite operas in their classrooms the week before the break. He told the story of the operas, the students acted out parts, and they all sang songs from the operas together.

Kindergarten and TK students learned about Hansel and Gretel, first graders about The Magic Flute, and second graders, in the photo below, about three versions of the Cinderella story. The earliest of these, the Greek rendition, dates back more than 2,000 years. The girl’s name in that one is Rhodopis. In the African version, she’s Nyasha. In the Chinese version, her name is Ye Xian.

Andy has been a member of the San Francisco Opera chorus for 20 years. His visit to the school was part of the Opera Guild’s Sing a Story outreach program. On his way off campus, he stopped by the Office to sing the praises (not literally) of our students. He was impressed by how engaged they were, how well behaved, and how much he enjoyed working with them. “I’ll come back any time,” he said.

We’ll take him up on that!